


Stratagem

by beemotionpicture



Category: Fire Emblem Series, Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Character Study, Chess Metaphors, Claude von Riegan-centric, Gen, happy birthday claude!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-25
Updated: 2020-07-25
Packaged: 2021-03-05 22:35:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 917
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25502959
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/beemotionpicture/pseuds/beemotionpicture
Summary: It was curious, Claude thought, as he clutched at bone and sinew and the lives of his men, that for all the difference between them, their blood when spilled was the same.Claude von Riegan character study.
Relationships: Claude von Riegan & Tiana von Riegan | Claude von Riegan's Mother
Comments: 8
Kudos: 28
Collections: Peculiarity: FE Small Writer Zine





	Stratagem

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the FE3H zine _[Peculiarity.](https://twitter.com/fesmallwriter/status/1286797667348119556)_

Claude learned backgammon when he was five. He wasn’t really any good at it; how could he be, when he was  _ five? _

“I was good at backgammon when I was your age,” his mother lied blatantly, with a little shrug even. She sniffed, “You’re my son, you have no excuse.”

“Liar, liar,” his father crooned at her in Almyran, fixing the pieces in front of Claude.  _ Blegh, _ they were flirting again. “You didn’t even know it existed until you met me.”

They made heart eyes at each other and Claude mock gagged. He pouted at his parents and insisted his father play him again.

“I’m getting there, see?” Claude declared proudly, when he’d finally won his first set. “The winds of luck are on my side.”

“Luck, hm,” his father had hummed. He had a twinkle in his eye, cheeky, like he knew something Claude did not. As Almyra’s king, he  _ better _ know a whole darn lot: they called him the Wise, the Courageous, unparalleled in both mind and body and spirit. But Claude only knew him as the Gentle, as baba, and now as the hurdle towards his latest conquest—to become a master of backgammon. “Do you think you are clever, my son, for figuring that out?”

He didn’t have time to reply. Claude set about fixing the board again, eager to see for himself if the tides of favor would change.

The object of backgammon was simple: move all your stones off the board and victory was yours. Well, at least for that round. Backgammon was played as a series of games, first to reach a seven, or a nineteen, or a twenty five—or however much you wanted to win. It was a gamble, with dice made of bone that carried the souls of old players, and the pieces, weathered earth. That third round, Claude had won once, thrice, more times than he could count—but his father’s smile never wavered. He merely ticked those wins on a piece of parchment, the  _ scritch scratch  _ making Claude all the more frustrated.

They played again. And again. They played until dawn turned to dusk, and… Claude lost, to his absolute surprise. His mother snickered.

“Backgammon is a game of skill, more than anything.” He asked once again, “Do you think you are clever, boy?”

Claude recognized it now; the twinkle he’d seen in his father’s eyes had instead been a sharp glint, neither mean nor cruel but it certainly got the point across.

No, his mother was the one with a mean streak.

Claude was eight when Tiana von Riegan taught him to play chess. She had no title unlike his father—unlike every other “true warrior”, Almyran by blood. She was a coward apparently, one doomed to a life of being  _ other _ in a chosen home that rejected her again and again. As a child, Claude knew her as neither gentle nor kind… and looking back at he remained ever grateful for it.

He knew from the beginning that chess was a game of strategy, of skill. You sacrificed your pawns and bishops and queens in order to win, and he was perfectly fine with that. Claude had learned that when your people hated you, you had to learn to compartmentalize. But it was a game to keep him sharp, nothing more. He preferred backgammon still.

When he was fifteen, he learned to love chess.

People didn’t play backgammon in Fodlan; they’d never even heard of it. His father hadn’t been joking when he said both of Claude’s peoples were ignorant. But his love of chess was less… carefree, less childlike than his love of backgammon, he supposed.

As heir to House Riegan, he was expected to play chess. Thank the gods again for his mother’s foresight, but he genuinely had no clue how she’d known it’d come to _ this _ . Duke Oswald was a master at chess, more than his mother would ever be, and playing dozens of games against his grandfather had fostered that love in him.

Chess was a learning tool. He learned more about Oswald through those games than he ever did over stilted dinners and tutoring sessions. And knowledge? 

It was power. 

His classmates couldn’t tell because he played so well. He played the part; he played the game; he blended in during Alliance politics and only stood out in Garreg Mach when he wanted to.

Claude was from Leicester, and Leicester only.

There weren’t many chances to play anymore, what with the war going on, but arguably Claude was better now at chess than he’d ever been. Chess taught him strategy, taught him patience. It has taught him how to cope in this foreign country—and Fodlan remained  _ foreign  _ up till now, even though the Leicester Alliance was supposed to be his home. He would never consider them enemies, but chess helped him survive around people who would label him as such.

It was curious, Claude thought, as he clutched at bone and sinew and the lives of his men, that for all the difference between them, their blood when spilled was the same.

Failnaught didn’t feel right in his hands anymore. But he held onto it like the lifeline it was, the only thing keeping him from joining the bodies that littered the ground below. It, like chess, was a mark that labeled him an ally, that let him blend in and not be  _ other. _

He did not play chess anymore, but  _ oh _ how it helped him still.

**Author's Note:**

> Follow me on [twitter!](https://twitter.com/beemcvie)


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